Beryllium-7 measurements of wind erosion on sloping fields in the wind-water erosion crisscross region on the Chinese Loess Plateau

Highlights: • This study used beryllium-7 measurements to characterize wind erosion rates and their spatial distributions. • Isolines revealed resultant effective erosion wind directions and variations in the microrelief. • Wind erosion rates correlated better with linear slope gradients compared to the exponent. • This study determined that beryllium-7 is feasible for wind erosion study in field experiments. Soil erosion is complex in the wind-water erosion crisscross region of the Chinese Loess Plateau, as interleaving of wind and water erosion occurs on both temporal and spatial scales. It is difficult to distinguish wind erosion from the total erosion in previous studies due to the untraceable of aeolian particles and the limitation of feasible methods and techniques. This study used beryllium-7 measurements to study wind erosion in the wind-water erosion crisscross region on the Chinese Loess Plateau arms to delineate wind erosion distribution, to analyze its implication to erosive winds and surface microrelief, and to determine correlations between erosion rates and slope gradients. Results obtained using beryllium-7 measurements based on observation plots were verified with saltating particle collection method, and were also verified on a field scale. Results indicated that the effective resultant erosion wind was from northward, which was proved by the eight-directional distributed saltating particles. The microrelief of the ground surface contributed to the formation of high or low erosion centers. Wind erosion rates increased with a linear (R² ≥ 0.95) or exponential (R² ≥ 0.83) fitting increase in the slope gradients as reported in previous studies. Compared to wind erosion on field scale, both the plots and fields exhibited similar distribution patterns in wind erosion isolines. We also determined that the wind erosion rate for two fields estimated, based on equations developed from plot scale was acceptable. This study validates the feasibility of beryllium-7 measurements for soil-wind erosion field experiments and the potential to expand this approach to real field conditions.